Putting Public Cruelty First : Judith Shklar for the Contemporary World

This article argues that Judith N. Shklar's political theory offers a powerful form of public philosophy for diagnosing contemporary injustice. It reconstructs her decision to “put cruelty first,” arguing that, under an institutionalized asymmetry between the weak and the powerful, this vice takes on the specific political form of public cruelty. From this perspective, Shklar's “liberalism of fear” is read as a project to limit public cruelty and the atmospheres of fear it generates. The article applies Shklar's theory as a diagnostic lens to interpret instances of institutionalized violence, focusing on the enforcement of immigration laws in the United States under the Trump administration and on ongoing wars and mass atrocities. Finally, it develops Shklar's notion of passive injustice and her moral and psychological attention to victims' perspectives to argue for a renewed civic duty: to reject complicity, extend outrage beyond state borders, and hold political theory accountable to those who suffer.